Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross says he does not understand why federal workers who haven't been paid in weeks need to take advantage of food banks at homeless shelters to feed their families.

“I know they are, and I don’t really quite understand why,” Ross told CNBC Thursday morning, as RollCall reports. “Because, as I mentioned before, the obligations that they would undertake, say borrowing from a bank or a credit union are in effect federally guaranteed.”

“So the 30 days of pay that some people will be out, there’s no real reason why they shouldn’t be able to get a loan against it.”

That's largely false. And even if they are able to get loans, they will have to pay interest on those loans, which can also affect their credit ratings adversely.

Ross reportedly is a multi-billionaire, although some reports place his wealth at $700 million.

Here's the video of the Commerce Secretary's remarks:

WILBUR ROSS downplays 800k workers missing checks as "a third of a percent on our GDP. So it's just like it's a gigantic number."

ROSS then says this about fed workers going to homeless shelters to get food: "I don't quite understand why." Says they should just go take out loans pic.twitter.com/0sOmZGEozD